Card switch device

ABSTRACT

A card switch device comprises a base plate and a base frame at least, and the base plate is electrically connected to a socket on the side thereof. The base frame has a groove retaining contact elements of memory cards of not less than two standards. Thus, the card switch device can provide use for one or more memory cards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a card switch device,particularly to a switch device supporting memory cards of differentstandards.

[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art

[0004] With the progress of IT, storage medias based on semiconductortechnology are gradually replacing the conventional floppy disks,compact disc (CD), and becoming new and developing storage medias whichare also called memory cards. And they have been widely used in thedigital products with the corresponding sockets, for example, Notebook,PDA, e-Book, DSC, MP3, etc. Compared with said conventional storagemedias, they are better in portability, power consumption, datapreservation, data-transmission rate, reread-write, shockproof andmoisture-proof features. However, the memory cards are legion on themarket, such as Compact Flash (CF) card, Secure Digital (SD) card,MultiMedia card (MMC), Memory Stick Duo (MS Duo) card, etc. Therein, theCF card published in 1994 is the most popular, and its standard has beenembedded in a great variety of digital products. In this case, only CFCard can be used in digital products, that is to say, other kinds ofcards can't be used. Thus, manufacturers have studied a CF cardinterface switch so that other memory cards can be used in the productswith embedded the CF card standard. The interface switch has CF standardand can switch and support single standard card (e.g. SD card or MMCcard)

[0005] However, the CF card interface switch can not support a newmemory card standard-xD memory card (xD picture card) published byOLYMPUS and Fujifilm together in July, 2002 (xD memory card was evolvedfrom Smart Media (SM) card with a smaller size (20.0 mm×25.0 mm), and itis uneasy to be broken and has high capacity).

[0006] Furthermore, the read-write devices or the switch devices thathave gained currency for a long time on the market can only be used forexisting standard memory cards and can not compact with the recent xDcard. Accordingly, memory cards can be used only in user side or productside of read-write devices or the switch devices according to xD memorycard standard, and it is inconvenient and troublesome in use. But it isuneconomical if a single socket for the new standard is made specially.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] To solve said problems and attain other efficacies and objects,the inventor, an expert in reading card device, invented a “card switchdevice” after continuous study and test.

[0008] The main object of the present invention is to provide a cardswitch device to allow one or more cards to insert. The card switchdevice includes: a base frame and a base plate. The base frame has agroove to hold a plurality of cards by means of spacial overlap, and atleast a first row contact elements and a second row contact elements arearranged on the groove. A socket is arranged at one side of the baseplate and it is electrically connected to the base frame. When thememory cards are inserted in the groove at different times, the first orsecond row contact elements will couple with the signals from the memorycards and will transform them into the signals of the card switchdevice.

[0009] Another object of the present invention is to provide a third rowcontact elements/pins to support SD/MMC card, and/or MS Duo card and/orxD card or other small memory cards. Therein, according to the presentinvention, pins of MS Duo and SD/MMC can further be arranged to becommonly-used, thus the same efficacy is obtained and the cost isreduced.

[0010] Detailed structure and effect of the present invention willbecome apparent according to the attached drawings and the preferredembodiment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011]FIG. 1 is the 3D view of a card switch device of the presentinvention.

[0012]FIG. 2 is the first exploded view of a card switch device of thepresent invention.

[0013]FIG. 3 is the second exploded view of a card switch device of thepresent invention.

[0014]FIG. 4 is the side view of a card switch device of the presentinvention.

[0015]FIG. 5 is the diagram of an embodiment of a card switch devicesupporting insertion of different types of memory cards according to thepresent invention.

[0016] Card switch device (10)

[0017] Groove (12)

[0018] Top shell (14)

[0019] Bottom shell (16)

[0020] Socket (18)

[0021] First row contact elements (20)

[0022] Second row contact elements (21)

[0023] Third row contact elements (22)

[0024] Base frame (24)

[0025] Base plate (26)

[0026] Memory card (30)

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0027] Referring to FIG. 1, it is the 3D view of a card switch device ofthe present invention, in FIG.1, there is a standard CF (Compact Flash)card. CF cards can be classified into two types: Type I (3.3 mm)/Type II(5.0 mm) according to thickness.

[0028] Also as shown in FIGS. 2-3, they are the exploded views of a cardswitch device of the present invention. The card switch device (10) ofthe present invention can switch one or more memory cards, i.e., thesignals from the memory cards will be transformed into signals of the CFcard interface to transmit. Thus a preferred detailed embodimentcomprises:

[0029] A base frame (24) having a groove (12), which contains the memorycards by means of special overlap; and a first row contact elements(20), a second row contact elements (21) and a third row contactelements (22) are properly distributed in the groove (12); wherein thecontact elements are so-called pins; and

[0030] a base plate (26), and a socket is arranged at one side of thebase plate, and the socket is electrically connected to the base frame(24), and a plurality of round holes connected with the contact elementsare arranged at the position corresponding to the contact elements onthe base plate. When some small memory card is inserted in the groove(12), the corresponding contact elements will couple with the signalsfrom the memory card and conform into the signals of the card switchdevice (10) via the appointed contact element.

[0031] In the preferred embodiment, a first and a second row contactelements (20), (21) are arranged back and forth at one side of thegroove (12). And the first row contact element (20) has 16 pins tocouple with an xD card, and the second row contact element (21) has 9pins to couple with an SD card or an MMC card. However, the third rowcontact elements (22, 10 pins) are arranged at the other side of thegroove (12), where the MS DUO card can be inserted for coupling witheach other. Thus, it makes the groove (12) supporting different types ofmemory cards (including xD, MS Duo, SD and MMC cards or other smallmemory cards). Particularly, the contact elements (20), (21) and (22)are embedded in the groove (12) of the base frame (24) by pin loading,and then be combined with the pins or the round holes of the base plate(26) by SMT or DIP.

[0032] As shown in FIG. 4, it is the side view of a card switch deviceof the present invention. It's obvious that the three rows of contactelements (20)-(22) are arranged at their corresponding position and arearranged according to the sizes of the memory cards. Thus, such a designwill not cause increased thickness of the standard card switch device(10) of the present invention for supporting insertion of differenttypes of memory cards. In other words, this technology agrees with notonly the standard CF type I, type II cards but also the lengthened CFcards.

[0033] It should be supplemented that in the combination of the baseframe (24) and the base plate (26), besides some circuit configurationon the base plate (26), there are also IC, memory cards, capacitances,resistances, etc. And according to the position of the contact elements(20), (21), pluralities of small round holes are arranged on the baseplate (26) in order to implement better combination. The third rowcontact elements (22) are combined with the base plate (26) through thepins extending upwards from the base frame (24), thus signals can betransmitted. This is the prior art and it is not discussed here.

[0034] Also as shown in FIG. 5, it is the diagram of an embodiment of acard switch device supporting insertion of different types of memorycards according to the present invention. In FIG.5, The base frame (24)of the present invention further comprises a top shell (14) and a bottomshell (16) for covering the card switch device (10).

[0035] Obviously, besides the third row contact elements (22), thepresent invention provides a row pins set (as marked with circle inFIG.5) because the exterior size of the SD/MMC card is similar to the MSDuo card in the sizes, i.e., the row pins set can be arranged around theposition where the second row pins set of FIG.1-FIG.4 is to attain thesame efficacy and object.

[0036] In conclusion, the card switch device of the present inventionhas at least the following advantages and efficacy:

[0037] 1. The switch device of the CF card interface according to thepresent invention can support insertion and access of different types ofstandard memory cards which are inserted at different times through asingle groove.

[0038] 2. According to the present invention, the single groove isarranged to hold the different types of memory cards by special overlap.The memory cards comprise: MS Duo card, SD/MMC card and xD card or othersmall memory cards.

[0039] 3. According to the present invention, besides the third rowcontact elements, the contact elements for SD/MMC cards can be arrangedto a pins set for MS Duo cards commonly-used.

What is claimed is:
 1. A card switch device, at least comprising: a baseplate and a base frame, wherein a socket being electrically connected toone side of the base plate, and the base frame being combined with thebase plate and being arranged a groove retaining contact elements ofmemory cards of not less than two standards to provide use for more thanone memory card.
 2. A card switch device as claim 1, wherein the baseframe further including a top shell and a bottom shell.
 3. A card switchdevice as claim 1, wherein the contact elements at least comprising afirst row contact elements and a second row contact elements.
 4. A cardswitch device as claim 3, wherein the first row contact elements beingused to couple with an xD card.
 5. A card switch device as claim 3,wherein the second row contact elements being used to couple with an SDcard and/or an MMC card.
 6. A card switch device as claim 1, wherein thecard switch device covering standard type I/type II CF cards andlengthened CF cards.
 7. A card switch device as claim 1, wherein thecard switch device covering the PCMCIA standards.
 8. A card switchdevice as claim 1 or claim 3, wherein the groove further including athird row contact elements arranged on the surface opposite to the firstand second row elements and the third row contact elements being used tocouple with an MS Duo card independently.
 9. A card switch device asclaim 1, wherein the contact elements set combining with the base plateby SMT or DIP.
 10. A card switch device as claim 1 or claim 3, whereinthe second row contact elements be used together by an SD card, an MMCcard and an MS Duo card.